Octuplets, anyone?

What would cause a single mother of 6 children (ages 2-7), who lives at home with her parents, to want to be implanted with embryos in order to have more children? I can say from experience that having three children is a chore, and I am married. I cannot imagine even being a single father of three, much less being a single parent of 6 with another 8 coming at one time.

While it is not my position that we should be involved in telling others what decisions they should make and how many children they should have, I would think that the people close to her would have counselled her more wisely before undertaking this endeavor. Children are a blessing, but we should be prepared to care for the children that we wish to have, and do so responsibly.

She now is the single mother of 14 children, all of them 7 years and younger. Stop and think about that. Her judgment does need to be questioned. We can only hope and pray that she will be a good mother. I give her credit for not aborting any of them during her pregnancy, even though she was given the opportunity to do so. She plans to breastfeed them, a decision that my mind cannot comprehend.

I have been fascinated by the Duggar family (which can be seen at times on TLC), who are in stark contrast to that new mother of octuplets. They have 18 children, from 19 years old and recently married, all the way down to a newborn. The mother and father (he is the father of all the children) are married. He has a job and is able to support the family. They have a rather large home for their children. All the kids seem to get along and they have chores to do around the house. While I question the sanity of 18 children, they have done things the right way, and they have a loving family to show for it.

What I find interesting in this whole saga are the comments of Arthur Caplan, the bioethics chairman at the University of Pennsylvania. He believes that this mother is wrong in what she did because it will cause insurance premiums to go up and it will cause an increase in the need of some social services, among other things.

Basically, this bioethics guy is promoting the limiting of the human population because it will be too much of a cost for society to handle (sounds a little like Nancy Pelosi). This situation only allows his views to possibly get a little more time in the debate that is happening on the public stage. I guess my question is how did this guy get a job as a bioethics chairman at an Ivy League school when it sounds as if he is for population control? What does that say for our education system today.